reverb unit project, looking for hints

[pietro_moog]

hi guys.
this summer i'm very busy but i'd love to build a reverb unit, small enough to fit into my 5f2 cab (which is a bit smaller than the princeton one)
i don't have a schematic in mind, i'm open to a lot of possibilities. i have a TON of spare parts and tubes that i could use, like el84s, 6v6s, 6bm8.

i wanna do something nice and small, with a short tank (i know it's not the best, but the big ones don't fit for a 1/4 inch.., which is very lame..)

i'm looking for advices.

i was thinking about a small, 2 tubes unit, capacitor coupled, with an 12ax7 and the 6bm8. 12ax7 as pentode drive and recovery, 6bm8 triode as direct signal buffer. something similar to the 6bm8 reverb champ on this forum.
what do you think guys, do you think it will be nice enough? i'm not sure if the gain driving the pentode would be enough for something like surf or a generic big reverb sound.

btw, i'm open to everything, every kind of advice is welcomed and this 6bm8 thing it's just a row idea

thanks everybody

[tubeswell]

So a stand alone reverb but in a chassis that you stick inside your amp? Weber does one.

Amongst other stuff - use a FW rectified power supply, a shielded PT and RT, pay close attention to avoiding ground loops, keep the pan's output transducer as far away as practicable from any EMF. If you're following the Fender 6G15, remember that that is designed to work in front of a guitar amp (and not somewhere in the middle of an amp's signal path) - this is to do with the relative amounts of gain in the wet and dry sides of the 6G15.

[Chuck H]

Or make something like this. Then you can use it with any amp and place it anywhere in the room or on the stage.

EDIT: Corrected schem.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Or make something like this. Then you can use it with any amp and place it anywhere in the room or on the stage.

EDIT: NOTE: The fuse is actually on the positive AC lead in series with the power switch.

Positive AC lead... ??? ha ha

[Chuck H]

Sorry. By positive I meant hot (as opposed to neutral). Will edit for clarity.

You might have said "By positive I assume Chuck means hot." rather than laugh at me in front of others. This is where I call you out. We punch at each other and then go back inside for another beer

[tubeswell]

Well, lets just say he was following a positive lead

[Chuck H]

badump bump.

[printer2]

Or make something like this. Then you can use it with any amp and place it anywhere in the room or on the stage.

EDIT: Corrected schem.

You plug your guitar directly into the reverb tank? How hard do you have to pick?

[Chuck H]

You plug your guitar directly into the reverb tank?

No. You plug your amps output into this contraption. If your amp has two parallel output jacks you can plug one into the "reverb amp" and the other into the speaker/s. If your amp only has one output you plug into the "reverb amp" and from the "reverb amp" into the speaker/s. The point is, the reverb amp is plugged in parallel to the normal load.

I built this thing for a customer that wanted a cranked amp sound without garbled reverb. Since this method reverberates the clipped signal the reverb sounds "right". Other systems clip the reverberated signal. As a result, built in reverbs and stand alone reverbs aren't much use when the power tubes are clipping.

It has a meter that indicates when the tank drive level is adjusted correctly. It can be adjusted to work with amps from five to a hundred watts. It has protection diodes to keep from overdriving the tank transducers. There's a basic tone control and of course a volume control. I've never used it with a 100W amp. But with a 50W amp it'll make enough reverb for that fully swamped BF effect. Not shown in the schematic is the generous padding and bagging I had to do to isolate the pan from feeding back at full output. It's a really cool thing. I'm not the first to make one. Mojo was selling a similar thing for awhile. Gibson and Hammond had a few vintage models with this sort of reverberation built into the design. This one is all tube as per my customers request. But you could make one much more cheaply and easily with SS devices. You could even use a digital reverb instead of a pan to simplify things and reduce expense even more. And it would probably sound just fine. Though not exactly the same as a pan reverb. Probably not worse. Just different.

[printer2]

Should have added a smiley. Was meant in jest.